Edgar Gonzalez recovering, put on DL

His movements limited by a neck brace, Edgar Gonzalez made a brief appearance in the Padres clubhouse yesterday, staying long enough to watch a video replay of his own beaning for the first time and reassure the Padres that he's recovering from the resultant head injury.

He didn't need a replay to remind him of anything, though.

“When I got hit, I started praying right away,” Gonzalez said. “First thing, I was going, ‘Please, God.’ I couldn't focus. Everything was spinning.”

To some degree, Gonzalez remains a bit dizzy, still feeling the effects of vertigo and yet to fully regain his hearing. He was placed on the disabled list with a concussion, sustained when a fastball from Colorado right-hander Jason Hammel smashed into the rear left quadrant of Gonzalez's batting helmet.

“I didn't know I got to the ground that fast,” said Gonzalez after viewing the video of the incident. “It looks a lot worse. I mean, I felt pretty bad, but when I saw it, I can see how people would think it was really bad because I went down fast.

“I remember getting hit and I remember going to the ground and thinking, ‘Please, don't let it happen.’ ”

It?

“Like, don't lose my memory,” Gonzalez said. “I didn't want something to happen to my brain that I can't use it, that I can't function. . . . When the ball hit, I really felt my brain move backwards. I felt like I didn't have a helmet.”

Gonzalez — who was replaced on the roster by left-hander Joe Thatcher — said he hasn't suffered many of the headaches or other symptoms that usually come with a concussion and that his balance improved yesterday over the day before. Asked if he envisions himself being able to return to play this year, he opened his eyes wide and said, “Oh yeah.”

A ‘blur’ for Latos

For far different reasons, newcomer
Mat Latos
also has a hazy recollection of the weekend at Petco Park, where he made an impressive major league debut in a Padres loss to the Rockies.

“To be honest with you, I probably couldn't even tell you what the first batter did,” the 21-year-old right-hander said. “Maybe other than the first hit, the home run and the first strikeout . . . I just had so much adrenaline going that a lot of it was a blur.”

Latos went four innings and allowed four hits while striking out five. But he said he has experienced a bit of weariness in coming down from the emotional high.

“This morning I felt like a million bucks,” he said. “There were just a lot of emotions going through me yesterday. But I talked to
Jake (Peavy)
and
Chris (Young)
and a lot of the older guys about the experience and they gave me advice on how to handle it.

“They told me to go out there before the game and look at the ballpark and everything and then just focus on the batter and the game. But when I went out there before the game, it was one thing I'll never forget.”